FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2000

Mike McCullough

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Well, I wasn't focused on anything except each hole, each shot, and maybe that's what allowed me not to make any mistakes today. It's always nice to play without mistakes.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I didn't notice a difference. But yesterday, I played in the morning; so, for me, the morning round was already a little bit moist on the greens. Today's round, of course, was moist because of the rain we had yesterday; and so I didn't have those bad conditions that most of the fellows had yesterday.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Hit a 5-iron about 20 feet and coaxed it into the hole. Thought I left it short, but it was right in the middle; so that started it. Then I missed a close one on the next hole, on 5. I missed a close one on 5. I thought, I'm ready to go for it again. But I made about a 3-foot putt on 7 for birdie. I hit a driver and a 5-wood, and then a sand wedge out of the bunker on the left. I think the key to the front nine was No. 8 and 9. No. 8, I hit a poor shot. The wind was a crossing wind, and I hit it way back in the middle of the green and very difficult 2-putt, and I made two putts. And on No. 9, the club didn't fit. I wanted to hit a 5-iron or a 6-iron, and my caddy was saying 6-iron and I hit a 5-iron, and I hit it way to the right so I got it up-and-down. So the key to my front nine wasn't the birdies so much as the lack of the bogeys where it could have happened on 8 and 9 and stopped the momentum. No. 10, I hit a driver that just left me a distance that just fit one of my clubs. It was my gap wedge, the U-wedge, and it was about 103 yards over the bunker; 107 to the hole. It just fit; so I was able to hit it about 10 feet, and I made that. Now, that green was hard. Some of them did get hard from the wind, Phil, you know, blowing on us. 13 and 14, I had to make two putts of about five, six feet for pars. And they weren't poor first putts, but that's just how far by the putt went. So there again, that was the key to the back nine round; it saved the momentum. And ironically as it may seem on the very next hole, which was 15, I hit a hit it very, very close with a 5-iron and missed it. But I had made the two before for par; so you kind of balance out. And then 17. I hit a 3-wood, a 5-iron and a sand wedge, and it just fit the sand wedge and I left about six feet and I made that putt. And on 18, I hit a 3-wood, 8-iron and I had about 15 feet, and my caddy made me read it a different way than I wanted to read it. I wanted to read it break. Everybody -- I watched Allen Doyle miss a putt, I watched Gil Morgan miss a putt in the group in front of me. I watched Leonard Thompson miss a putt. This thing can't read it the way I see it. I closed my eyes, not literally, I didn't want to hit it where I hit it, but I hit it where my caddy told me to hit it, but it was right in the middle and it was a good ending.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Well, I was telling somebody outside that Mike McCullough has been on the tour for a long time, but the new Mike McCullough that has been working on a new golf swing for the last two and a half years is just an infant. I'm excited about being in the last group again, because I am playing with a whole different swing philosophy. And my execution sometimes is good and sometimes is bad, but it's a lot better that than fellow who had played 20-some years before. So I'm anxious to start building on the new Mike instead of the old Mike. That should give you guys some curveballs to shoot at me tomorrow.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: The same guy that's been here the last two years will show up tomorrow.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Probably patience, and the realization of knowing I'm going to be nervous, and before, you would think, "Well, I'm going to try to relax, try to relax." Shoot, you can't relax. You're going to be nervous; so is everybody else. And what time it shows up and how you react at that time, the breaks you get -- I'll tell you the truth, Leonard Thompson won last week. I played with Leonard, he shot like 5-over par. Leonard hit the ball better than I did, but it seemed like every time he would hit a shot that was close to the hole, somehow it would just hit and go somewhere where he can't play from. And his round looked terrible, but it shouldn't have been. And he wasn't a bit nervous. I mean, he just won. But that's what this golf course can do. You can be in this media room and you can feel really good about yourself, and tomorrow or the day before, you have things bounce all over the place. I'm very fortunate to be here. I love to be in this position, and I'm looking forward to testing me and seeing where I go, and everybody else is. But you've got to remember: I'm not leading. Those other guys are leading. They are the ones that they have to fight. I'm just going to fight to try to play the best I can.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: No. I wouldn't say that. I've always felt like I'm better in front. I just haven't been in front with this new guy. I have to find out how he gets there. But Saturday 67's are easier than Sunday 67's. I'm just glad to have it.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Yes. The same person that taught Gil Morgan is teaching me. And we've worked on it very hard, and it's simple. If you guys would come to me for lesson, you guys and girls, excuse me, and you would be duck-hooking it and I wanted to change your grip, all I did was just move it maybe a half-inch, but for you to actually play with it there and be able to go to this position and then that one and then this one (indicating various points on swing plane) and believe that that's in the right position takes a lot of courage. So it took me almost two years to change my grip. So when you go to get lessons, be very cautious about that, because it takes -- it's time-consuming. It's not time-consuming to make the physical change, but it feels different at different places and your body will overreact and go back to the old feeling. See, and that's when I said when I said my execution is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes my execution goes back into the other guy, and that's because back in here somewhere, it feels like where it used to be. So, not an excuse, but it's a reality that I have to live with right now, but it's getting better as my scoring has been.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I do. And there's my children right there that I like to be with them, but I can't be with them when I'm not fully exempt. I'm not exempt on the All-Time Money List. If I could take time off, I would. But there's another thing: I don't play like -- Dana Quigley plays every day. You won't see me playing Mondays and Tuesdays. I might drive a cart around and watch other people play, but I don't play. So I'm not playing every day. But I would like to take Monday and Tuesday and go home, but I can't do it.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: No. (Laughter.)

MIKE McCULLOUGH: When I get into a position -- I already have a number in the back of my head, when I get to that all-time money number, I'll start taking time off. I'll pick the tournaments that I've played well in the past that fit my game. And that's funny, too. Two years ago, the courses that I thought I liked, boy, they look different to me now. The ball flight is different.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Everywhere.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Still everywhere.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I think I have a little bit more control of the height of the shot.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Oh, yeah, you guys have air conditioning in your car, don't you? You have the opportunity to wear these beautiful sandals with these air conditioned toes and nobody does? I don't understand. Howard Twitty put me on these, and I've been called everything. In fact, my name on the scoreboard out there by Bruno is Mahatma (phonetic), where it says Watson, Morgan, Gil, McCullough -- Mahatma.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: None. No ailment. I'm doing it because I consider that I get better traction. It's wider. The spikes all touch the ground. When you compact, it's like a tire on a highway. The whole thing spreads out. Well, this is so soft and pliable; that the whole shoe actually spreads out and touches the ground. I have a better grip. If you have regular shoes, it's rounded to a degree because it's hard. So the only spikes that are really going deep are the ones in the middle. The ones on the side are just touching, whether they are soft spikes or hard spikes. This one is all in all the time. The heel is already built in. Automatic air conditioning. Don't ask me what it's like in the rain. My feet are wet, the same as everybody else's.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: More wet.